More than three centuries have passed since the church schism of the 17th century, and most still do not know how the Old Believers differ from Orthodox Christians. Don't do that.

Terminology

The distinction between the concepts of “Old Believers” and “Orthodox Church” is quite arbitrary. The Old Believers themselves admit that their faith is Orthodox, and the Russian Orthodox Church is called New Believers or Nikonians.

In the Old Believer literature of the 17th - first half of the 19th century centuries, the term “Old Believer” was not used.

Old Believers called themselves differently. Old Believers, Old Orthodox Christians...The terms “orthodoxy” and “true Orthodoxy” were also used.

In the writings of Old Believer teachers of the 19th century, the term “true Orthodox Church” was often used. The term “Old Believers” became widespread only end of the 19th century century. At the same time, Old Believers of different agreements mutually denied each other’s Orthodoxy and, strictly speaking, for them the term “Old Believers” united, on a secondary ritual basis, religious communities deprived of church-religious unity

Fingers

It is well known that during the schism the two-finger sign of the cross was changed to three-finger. Two fingers are a symbol of the two Hypostases of the Savior ( true God and true man), three fingers - a symbol of the Holy Trinity.

The three-finger sign was adopted by the Ecumenical Orthodox Church, which by that time consisted of a dozen independent Autocephalous Churches, after the preserved bodies of the martyrs-confessors of Christianity of the first centuries with folded fingers of the three-finger Sign of the Cross were found in the Roman catacombs. There are similar examples of the discovery of the relics of saints of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

Agreements and rumors

The Old Believers are far from homogeneous. There are several dozen agreements and even more Old Believer rumors. There is even a saying: “No matter what a man is, no matter what a woman is, there is agreement.” There are three main “wings” of the Old Believers: priests, non-priests and co-religionists.

Jesus

During the Nikon reform, the tradition of writing the name “Jesus” was changed. The double sound “and” began to convey the duration, the “drawn-out” sound of the first sound, which in the Greek language is indicated by a special sign, which has no analogue in the Slavic language, therefore the pronunciation of “Jesus” is more consistent with the Universal practice of sounding the Savior. However, the Old Believer version is closer to the Greek source.

Differences in the Creed

During the “book reform” of the Nikon reform, changes were made to the Creed: the conjunction-opposition “a” was removed in the words about the Son of God “born, not made.”

From the semantic opposition of properties, a simple enumeration was thus obtained: “begotten, not created.”

The Old Believers sharply opposed the arbitrariness in the presentation of dogmas and were ready to suffer and die “for a single az” (that is, for one letter “a”).

In total, about 10 changes were made to the Creed, which was the main dogmatic difference between the Old Believers and the Nikonians.

Towards the sun

By the middle of the 17th century, a universal custom had been established in the Russian Church to perform religious procession salt. The church reform of Patriarch Nikon unified all rituals according to Greek models, but the innovations were not accepted by the Old Believers. As a result, New Believers perform the anti-salting movement during religious processions, and Old Believers perform religious processions during salting.

Ties and sleeves

In some Old Believer churches, in memory of the executions during the Schism, it is forbidden to come to services with rolled up sleeves and ties. Popular rumor associates rolled up sleeves with executioners, and ties with gallows. Although, this is only one explanation. In general, it is customary for Old Believers to wear special prayer clothes (with long sleeves) to services, and you can’t tie a tie on a blouse.

Question of the cross

Old Believers recognize only the eight-pointed cross, while after Nikon’s reform in Orthodoxy four and six-pointed crosses were recognized as equally honorable. On the crucifixion tablet of the Old Believers it is usually written not I.N.C.I., but “King of Glory.” Old Believers do not have an image of Christ on their body crosses, since it is believed that this is a person’s personal cross.

A deep and powerful Hallelujah

During Nikon's reforms, the pronounced (that is, double) pronunciation of “halleluia” was replaced by a triple (that is, triple). Instead of “Alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, God,” they began to say “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, God.”

According to New Believers, the triple utterance of alleluia symbolizes the dogma of the Holy Trinity.

However, Old Believers argue that the strict utterance together with “glory to Thee, O God” is already a glorification of the Trinity, since the words “glory to Thee, O God” are one of the translations into Slavic language the Hebrew word Alleluia (“praise God”).

Bows at the service

At services in Old Believer churches, a strict system of bows has been developed; replacing prostrations with bows from the waist is prohibited. There are four types of bows: “regular” - bow to the chest or to the navel; “medium” - in the waist; small bow to the ground - “throwing” (not from the verb “to throw”, but from the Greek “metanoia” = repentance); great prostration (proskynesis).

Throwing was banned by Nikon in 1653. He sent out a “memory” to all Moscow churches, which said: “It is not appropriate to do throwing on your knees in church, but you should bow to your waist.”

Old Believers, also known as Old Believers, are adherents of the Orthodox movement in Russia. The movement of the Old Believers was forced, since Patriarch Nikon in the second half of the 17th century ordered the Russian church reform Orthodox Church. The purpose of the reform: to bring all rituals, services and church books into conformity with Byzantine (Greek) ones. In the mid-50s of the 17th century, Patriarch Tikhon had the powerful support of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who implemented the concept: Moscow - Third Rome. Therefore, Nikon’s church reforms should have fit perfectly into this idea. But, de facto, a split occurred in the Russian Orthodox Church.

This was a true tragedy, since some believers did not want to accept the church reform, which changed their way of life and idea of ​​faith. This is how the Old Believers movement was born. People who disagreed with Nikon fled to remote corners of the country: mountains, forests, taiga wilderness - just to live according to their canons. There were often cases of self-immolation of believers of the old rite. Sometimes this happened to entire villages when official and church authorities tried to implement Nikon’s new ideas. According to the records of some chroniclers, the pictures appeared terrible: a large barn engulfed in flames, psalms rushing out of it, sung by dozens of people in the fire. Such was the willpower and fortitude of the Old Believers, who did not want changes, considering them to be from the evil one. Old Believers: difference from the Orthodox is a very serious topic that has been studied by some historians in the USSR.

One of these researchers in the 80s of the last century was Professor Boris Sitnikov, who taught at the Novosibirsk Pedagogical Institute. Every summer he and his students traveled to Old Believer villages in Siberia and collected interesting material.

Old Believers of Russia: difference from the Orthodox (main points)

Experts in church history count dozens of differences between the Old Believers and the Orthodox in matters of reading and interpreting the Bible, conducting church services, other rituals, everyday life and appearance. We also note that the Old Believers are heterogeneous. Among them, various movements stand out, which still add differences, but between the admirers of the old faith themselves. Pomeranians, Fedoseevites, Beglopopovtsy, Bespopovtsy, Popovtsy, Spasovsky sense, Netovshchina and many others. We will not tell everything in detail, as there is not enough space in one article. Let's take a brief look at the main differences and discrepancies between the Old Believers and the Orthodox.

1. How to be baptized correctly.

Nikon, during his reform of the church, forbade baptism according to the old custom with two fingers. Everyone was ordered to make the sign of the cross with three fingers. That is, to cross yourself in a new way: with three fingers folded into a pinch. The Old Believers did not accept this postulate, saw it as a fig (fig) and completely refused to cross themselves with three fingers. Old Believers still make the sign of the cross with two fingers.

2. Cross shape.

The Old Believers still have the pre-reform form Orthodox cross. It has eight ends. To our usual cross, two small crossbars have been added at the top (straight) and at the bottom (oblique). True, according to some researchers, some Old Believers believers also recognize other forms of crosses.

3. Prostrations to the ground.

Old Believers, unlike the Orthodox, recognize only prostrations, and the second - waist.

4. Pectoral cross.

For the Old Believers, it is always an eight-pointed cross (as described above) inside a four-pointed one. The main difference is that there is never an image of the crucified Jesus Christ on this cross.

5. During worship, Old Believers keep their arms crossed on their chests, while Orthodox Christians lower their arms at their sides.

6. The name of Jesus Christ is spelled differently. There are discrepancies in some prayers. One scholar-historian counted at least 62 discrepancies in prayers.

7. Almost complete cessation of alcohol and smoking. In some Old Believer traditions, it was allowed to take three glasses of alcohol on major holidays, but no more.

8. Appearance.

IN Old Believer Church You will not find, as in our Orthodox Christians, girls and women with scarves on their heads, in hats or scarves tied in a knot at the back. The woman is strictly wearing a headscarf, pinned under her chin. No bright or colored clothing is allowed. Men wear untucked old Russian shirts with a belt dividing the two parts of the body into the lower (dirty) and upper (spiritual). IN everyday life a male Old Believer is forbidden to shave his beard and wear a tie (Judas' noose).

By the way, of all the Russian tsars, the Old Believers especially hated Peter the Great because he forced them to shave off their beards, took the Old Believers into the army, taught the people to smoke (the Old Believers had a saying: “The tobacconist is a clerk in hell”) and other things, according to the Old Believers, overseas devilish things. And Peter the Great really valued the soldiers who entered the army from the Old Believers. One interesting case is known. A new frigate was to be launched at the shipyard. Something wasn’t going well technically: either the log got stuck or something else. The king, who had strong health and strong body, jumped up himself, grabbed the log, and helped solve the problem. Then he drew attention to a strong worker who worked for three and, without fear of the king, helped lift the log.

The king suggested comparing the silo. He says: “Here I will hit you in the chest, if you can stand on your feet, then I will allow you to hit me and you will have a royal gift.” Peter swung and hit the kid in the chest. Someone else would have probably flown about five meters head over heels. And he just swayed like an oak tree. The autocrat was surprised! Demanded a retaliatory strike. And the Old Believer struck! Everyone froze! And the guy was from the Old Believers of the Chud region. The king could barely stand it, swayed, and took a step away. The Emperor awarded such a hero a silver ruble and the position of corporal. Everything was explained simply: the Old Believers did not drink vodka, did not smoke tobacco, and ate, as it is now fashionable to say, ecologically. clean products and enjoyed enviable health. Therefore, Peter I ordered young people from monasteries to be recruited into the army.

These were, are and remain the Old Believers, preserving their customs and traditions. Old Believers: difference from the Orthodox - indeed, most interesting topic, you can write a lot more about this. For example, we have not yet told you that in the houses of the Old Believers two sets of dishes were kept: for themselves and for strangers (guests). It was forbidden to eat from the same dishes with non-believers. Archpriest Avvakum was a very charismatic leader among the Old Believers. We recommend that everyone interested in this topic watch the Russian series “Raskol,” which tells in great detail about Nikon’s church reform and its consequences.

In conclusion, we will only add that the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) only in 1971 completely lifted the anathema of the Old Believers, and the confessions began to take steps towards each other.

More than three centuries have passed since the church schism of the 17th century, and most still do not know how the Old Believers differ from Orthodox Christians.

Terminology
The distinction between the concepts of “Old Believers” and “Orthodox Church” is quite arbitrary. The Old Believers themselves admit that their faith is Orthodox, and the Russian Orthodox Church is called New Believers or Nikonians. In the Old Believer literature of the 17th - first half of the 19th centuries, the term “Old Believer” was not used. Old Believers called themselves differently. Old Believers, Old Orthodox Christians...The terms “orthodoxy” and “true Orthodoxy” were also used.
In the writings of Old Believer teachers of the 19th century, the term “true Orthodox Church” was often used. The term “Old Believers” became widespread only towards the end of the 19th century. At the same time, Old Believers of different agreements mutually denied each other’s Orthodoxy and, strictly speaking, for them the term “Old Believers” united, on a secondary ritual basis, religious communities deprived of church-religious unity

Fingers
It is well known that during the schism the two-finger sign of the cross was changed to three-finger. Two fingers are a symbol of the two Hypostases of the Savior (true God and true man), three fingers are a symbol of the Holy Trinity.
The three-finger sign was adopted by the Ecumenical Orthodox Church, which by that time consisted of a dozen independent Autocephalous Churches, after the preserved bodies of the martyrs-confessors of Christianity of the first centuries with folded fingers of the three-finger Sign of the Cross were found in the Roman catacombs. There are similar examples of the discovery of the relics of saints of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

Agreements and rumors
The Old Believers are far from homogeneous. There are several dozen agreements and even more Old Believer rumors. There is even a saying: “No matter what a man is, no matter what a woman is, there is agreement.” There are three main “wings” of the Old Believers: priests, non-priests and co-religionists.

Jesus
During the Nikon reform, the tradition of writing the name “Jesus” was changed. The double sound “and” began to convey the duration, the “drawn-out” sound of the first sound, which in the Greek language is indicated by a special sign, which has no analogue in the Slavic language, therefore the pronunciation of “Jesus” is more consistent with the Universal practice of sounding the Savior. However, the Old Believer version is closer to the Greek source.

Differences in the Creed
During the “book reform” of the Nikon reform, changes were made to the Creed: the conjunction-opposition “a” was removed in the words about the Son of God “born, not made.” From the semantic opposition of properties, a simple enumeration was thus obtained: “begotten, not created.” The Old Believers sharply opposed the arbitrariness in the presentation of dogmas and were ready to suffer and die “for a single az” (that is, for one letter “a”). In total, about 10 changes were made to the Creed, which was the main dogmatic difference between the Old Believers and the Nikonians.

Towards the sun
By the middle of the 17th century, a universal custom had been established in the Russian Church to perform a procession of the cross. The church reform of Patriarch Nikon unified all rituals according to Greek models, but the innovations were not accepted by the Old Believers. As a result, New Believers perform the anti-salting movement during religious processions, and Old Believers perform religious processions during salting.

Ties and sleeves
In some Old Believer churches, in memory of the executions during the Schism, it is forbidden to come to services with rolled up sleeves and ties. Popular rumor associates rolled up sleeves with executioners, and ties with gallows. Although, this is only one explanation. In general, it is customary for Old Believers to wear special prayer clothes (with long sleeves) to services, and you can’t tie a tie on a blouse.

Question of the cross
Old Believers recognize only the eight-pointed cross, while after Nikon’s reform in Orthodoxy four and six-pointed crosses were recognized as equally honorable. On the crucifixion tablet of the Old Believers it is usually written not I.N.C.I., but “King of Glory.” Old Believers do not have an image of Christ on their body crosses, since it is believed that this is a person’s personal cross.

A deep and powerful Hallelujah
During Nikon's reforms, the pronounced (that is, double) pronunciation of “halleluia” was replaced by a triple (that is, triple). Instead of “Alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, God,” they began to say “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, God.” According to New Believers, the triple utterance of alleluia symbolizes the dogma of the Holy Trinity. However, Old Believers argue that the strict pronunciation together with “glory to Thee, O God” is already a glorification of the Trinity, since the words “glory to Thee, O God” are one of the translations into the Slavic language of the Hebrew word Alleluia (“praise God”).

Bows at the service
At services in Old Believer churches, a strict system of bows has been developed; replacing prostrations with bows from the waist is prohibited. There are four types of bows: “regular” - bow to the chest or to the navel; “medium” - in the waist; small bow to the ground - “throwing” (not from the verb “to throw”, but from the Greek “metanoia” = repentance); great prostration (proskynesis). Throwing was banned by Nikon in 1653. He sent out a “memory” to all Moscow churches, which said: “It is not appropriate to do throwing on your knees in church, but you should bow to your waist.”

Hands cross
During services in the Old Believer church, it is customary to fold your arms with a cross on your chest.

Beads
Orthodox and Old Believer rosaries are different. In Orthodox rosaries there may be different quantities beads, but most often rosaries with 33 beads are used, according to the number of earthly years of Christ’s life, or a multiple of 10 or 12. In the Old Believers of almost all agreements, a ladder is actively used - rosary beads in the form of a ribbon with 109 “beans” (“steps”), divided into unequal groups. Lestovka symbolically means a ladder from earth to heaven.

Full immersion baptism
Old Believers accept baptism only by complete threefold immersion, while in Orthodox churches baptism by pouring and partial immersion is allowed.

Monodic singing
After the split of the Orthodox Church, the Old Believers did not accept either the new polyphonic singing style or new system musical notation. Kryuk singing (znamenny and demestvennoe) preserved by the Old Believers got its name from the way of recording a melody with special signs - “banners” or “hooks”.

IN lately, keen on studying Russian culture, different paths of spiritual and physical development many people became interested in the Old Believers. Indeed, the Old Believers - who are they? There are many opinions and views on this matter. Some believe that these are those Orthodox Christians who profess the faith that existed before the church schism during the Nikon reform. Others think that these are people who have chosen a faith for themselves, which Orthodox priests call pagan. The old faith, which was spread before the Baptism of Rus' by order of Prince Vladimir.

Old Believers - who are they?

The first associations that come to mind are people living in the taiga, who have rejected all the benefits of civilization, follow the ancient way of life, do everything themselves, without using any technology. Medicine is also not widespread; all diseases are treated with the prayers of Old Believers and fasting.

How true is this? It’s difficult to say, because Old Believers don’t talk about their lives, don’t sit on social networks, don’t write about it in blogs. The life of the Old Believers is secretive, takes place in closed communities, they try once again do not contact people. One gets the feeling that they can only be seen by accidentally getting lost in the taiga, wandering for more than one day.

Where do the Old Believers live?

For example, Old Believers live in Siberia. In a harsh and cold climate, it was thanks to them that new unexplored and inaccessible corners of the country were explored. There are Old Believers villages in Altai, several of them - Upper Uimon, Maralnik, Multa, Zamulta. It was in such places that they hid from persecution by the state and official church.

In the village of Verkhniy Uimon you can visit the Museum of Old Believers and learn in detail about their life and faith. Despite the fact that attitudes towards them have changed in better side With the course of history, Old Believers prefer to choose remote corners of the country to live.

To clarify the questions that involuntarily arise when studying them, it is worth first understanding where they came from and what the difference is between them. Old Believers and Old Believers - who are they?

Where did they come from

To find out the answer to the question of who they are, the Old Believers, you first have to plunge into history.

One of the significant and tragic events in Russia was the schism of the Russian Church. He divided believers into two camps: followers of the “old faith” who did not want to accept any innovations, and those who humbly accepted the innovations that arose thanks to Nikon’s reforms. appointed by Tsar Alexei, who wanted to change the Russian Church. By the way, the concept of “Orthodoxy” appeared along with Nikon’s reform. Therefore the phrase " Orthodox Old Believers" is somewhat incorrect. But in modern times this term is quite relevant. Because today there is officially a Russian Orthodox Church, in other words, the Church of the Old Believers.

So, changes in religion occurred and entailed many events. We can say that at that time in the 17th century the first Old Believers appeared in Russia, whose followers exist to this day. They protested against the Nikon reforms, which, in their opinion, changed not only the features of some rituals, but also the faith itself. These innovations were carried out with the aim of making Orthodox rituals in Rus' as similar as possible to Greek and global ones. They were justified by the fact that church books, which were copied by hand, since the time of Epiphany in Rus' had some distortions and typos, according to supporters of innovation.

Why did people resist Nikon's reforms?

Why did people protest against the new reforms? Perhaps the personality of Patriarch Nikon himself played a role here. Tsar Alexei appointed him to the important post of patriarch, giving him the opportunity to radically change the rules and rituals of the Russian church. But this choice was a little strange and not very justified. Patriarch Nikon did not have sufficient experience in creating and carrying out reforms. He grew up in a simple peasant family and eventually became a priest in his village. Soon he moved to the Moscow Novospassky Monastery, where he met the Russian Tsar.

Their views on religion largely coincided, and Nikon soon became patriarch. The latter not only did not have sufficient experience for this role, but, according to many historians, he was domineering and cruel. He wanted power that had no boundaries, and envied Patriarch Filaret in this regard. Trying in every possible way to show his importance, he was active everywhere and not only as a religious figure. For example, he personally participated in the suppression of the uprising in 1650; it was he who wanted brutal reprisals against the rebels.

What has changed

Nikon's reform introduced significant changes to Russian Christian faith. That is why opponents of these innovations and followers of the old faith appeared, who later began to be called Old Believers. They were persecuted for many years, were cursed by the church, and only under Catherine II the attitude towards them changed for the better.

During the same period, two concepts appeared: “Old Believer” and “Old Believer”. What is the difference and who they mean, today many people no longer know. In fact, both of these concepts are essentially the same thing.

Despite the fact that Nikon’s reforms brought only splits and uprisings to the country, for some reason there are opinions that they changed almost nothing. Most often, history books indicate only two or three changes, but in reality there are more. So, what has changed and what innovations have occurred? You need to know this in order to understand how the Old Believers differ from the Orthodox believers who belong to the official church.

Sign of the Cross

After the innovation, Christians made the sign of the cross by folding three fingers (or fingers) - the thumb, index and middle. Three fingers or “pinch” implies the Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Although earlier, before the reform, only two fingers were used for this. That is, two fingers - the index and middle - were left straight or slightly curved, and the rest were folded together.

It should depict the main two symbols of faith - the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. It was two-fingered fingers that were depicted on many icons and came from Greek sources. Old Believers or Old Believers still use two fingers to signify themselves sign of the cross.

Bows during services

Before the reforms, several types of bows were performed at the service, there were four in total. The first - to the fingers or to the navel, was called ordinary. The second - in the waist, was considered average. The third was called “throwing” and was performed almost to the ground (small bow to the ground). Well, the fourth - to the very ground (great prostration or proskynesis). This whole system of bows is still in effect during Old Believer services.

After the Nikon reform, it was allowed to bow only to the waist.

Changes in books and icons

In the new faith and the old they wrote the name of Christ differently. Previously they wrote Jesus, as in Greek sources. After the reforms, it was necessary to extend his name - Jesus. In fact, it is difficult to say which spelling is closer to the original, since in Greek there is a special symbol indicating the stretching of the letter “and”, in Russian it is not.

Therefore, to make the spelling match the sound, the letter “i” was added to the name of God. The old spelling of the name of Christ has been preserved in the prayers of the Old Believers, and not only among them, also in the Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Croatian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages.

Cross

The cross of the Old Believers and the followers of innovations is significantly different. From followers ancient orthodoxy Only the eight-pointed version was recognized. The Old Believer symbol of the crucifixion is represented by an eight-pointed cross located inside a larger four-pointed one. The most ancient crosses also lack images of the crucified Jesus. For its creators, it was the form itself that was important, rather than the image. The Old Believer's pectoral cross also has the same appearance without the image of the crucifixion.

Among Nikon's innovations regarding the cross, one can also highlight Pilate's inscription. These are the letters that are visible on the uppermost small crossbar of an ordinary cross, which is now sold in church shops - I N T I. This is the inscription left by Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator who ordered the execution of Jesus. It means "Jesus of Nazareth, King of Judea." It appeared on new Nikon icons and crosses, old versions were destroyed.

At the very beginning of the schism, heated debates began about whether it was permissible to depict this inscription. Archdeacon Ignatius from the Solovetsky Monastery wrote a petition to Tsar Alexei on this occasion, rejecting the new inscription and demanding the return of the old I X C C denoting “Jesus Christ King of Glory.” In his opinion, the old inscription speaks of Christ as God and Creator, who took his place in heaven after the Ascension. And the new one speaks of him as an ordinary person residing on earth. But Feodosius Vasiliev, deacon of the Red Yam Church and his followers for a long time, on the contrary, they defended the “Pilate inscription.” They were called Fedoseevtsy - a special branch of the Old Believers. All other Old Believers still use a more ancient inscription in the manufacture of their crosses.

Baptism and procession

For Old Believers, only complete immersion in water is possible, carried out three times. But after Nikon’s reforms, it became possible either partial immersion during baptism, or even just dousing.

The religious procession used to take place according to the sun, clockwise or salting. After the reform, during rituals it is performed counterclockwise. This caused strong discontent at one time, people began to believe new darkness.

Criticism of the Old Believers

Old Believers are often criticized for their strict adherence to all dogmas and rituals. When the symbolism and some features of the old rituals were changed, this caused strong discontent, riots and uprisings. Followers of the old faith might even prefer martyrdom than to come to terms with the new rules. Who are the Old Believers? Fanatics or selfless people defending their faith? This is difficult for a modern person to understand.

How can you doom yourself to death because of one letter that was changed or thrown out or, on the contrary, added? Many authors of articles write that symbolism and all these small, in their opinion, changes after Nikon’s reform are only external character. But is it correct to think so? Of course, the main thing is faith, and not just blind adherence to all rules and customs. But where is the limit of these permissible changes?

If you follow this logic, then why do we need these symbols at all, why call ourselves Orthodox, why do we need baptism and other rituals, if they can be so easily changed by simply gaining power, while killing hundreds of people who disagree. Why is this needed? Orthodox faith, if it does not differ at all from Protestant or Catholic. After all, all these customs and rituals exist for a reason, for the sake of their blind execution. It was not for nothing that people kept knowledge about these rituals for so many years, passed them on from mouth to mouth, and copied books by hand, because this is a huge amount of work. Perhaps they saw something more behind these rituals, something that modern man is unable to understand and sees this as unnecessary external paraphernalia.

In fact, their customs and traditions are far from the false ideas that “Old Believers are those who still make sacrifices to Zeus and Perun.” The reason for the split at one time was the reform that Tsar Alexei Romanov and Patriarch Nikon (Minin) decided to carry out. The Old Believers and their difference from the Orthodox began with the difference in making the sign of the cross. The reform proposed changing two fingers to three fingers, abolishing prostrations; later the reform affected all forms of the Church’s charter and order of worship. Until the reign of Peter I, changes took place in church life, which the Old Believers, who valued old customs and traditions, perceived as an encroachment on the traditional and correct, from their point of view, religious order.

Archpriest Avvakum called for preserving the old faith, including the Old Believer cross, and to suffer for the “old faith,” if necessary. They did not accept the reform of Patriarch Nikon and Solovetsky Monastery, the inhabitants of the monastery turned to Tsar Alexei Romanov with a petition in defense of the old faith. Old Believers in Russia today are followers of those who did not accept the reform in the 17th century.

Who are the Old Believers and what is their difference from the Orthodox, what is the difference between the two traditions?

The Old Believers maintained their position ancient Church regarding the confession of the Holy Trinity, the incarnation of God the Word, as well as the two hypostases of Jesus Christ. The Old Believer cross is an eight-pointed cross inside a four-pointed one. Such crosses are also found in the Russian Orthodox Church, along with the Serbian Church, so it is still impossible to consider the Old Believer cross exclusively Old Believer. At the same time, there is no image of the Crucifixion on the Old Believer cross.

The Old Believers, their customs and traditions largely overlap with the traditions of those who reacted favorably to the reform and accepted it. Old Believers are those who recognize baptism by immersion, canonical iconography... At the same time, only church books published before 1652, under Patriarch Joseph or earlier, are used for Divine services. The name of Christ in these books is written as Jesus, not Jesus.

Lifestyle

It is believed that in everyday life the Old Believers are very modest and even ascetic, and their culture is full of archaism. Many Old Believers wear beards, do not drink alcohol, and teach Old Church Slavonic language, and some wear traditional clothes in everyday life.

“Popovtsy” and “Bezpopovtsy”

To learn more about the Old Believers and understand who they are, you also need to know that the Old Believers themselves divide themselves into “priests” and “non-priests.” And, if the “priests” recognize the three-rank Old Believer hierarchy and the sacraments of the ancient Church, then the “bezpopovtsy” are sure that after the reform the pious church hierarchy was lost, and therefore many sacraments were abolished. The Old Believers “bezpopovtsy” recognize only two sacraments and their main difference from the Orthodox is that the only sacraments for them are Baptism and Confession, and the difference between the Old Believers “bezpopovtsy” and the Old Believers of chapel consent is that the latter also recognize the latter as sacraments Eucharist and Great Blessing of Water.

At the end of the 20th century, neo-pagans began to call themselves “Old Believers,” so Old Believers in Russia today are not only opponents of reform, but also supporters of various religious associations and sects. However, it is wrong to believe that the real Old Believers, their customs and traditions are somehow connected with paganism.